Do You Schmooze or Snooze?
By MCN Staff
Do you honestly believe that hard work and loyalty will help you get ahead in the present corporate environment? Snooze on, and your colleague will tap you on the shoulder one day to say, "Just wanted to let you know that I am your new boss, and snoozing on the job is not permitted." This example may be a bit extreme, but realistically hard work and loyalty are not the drivers for advancing your career. If you have not developed a strategy for letting the right people know how wonderful and brilliant you are (schmoozing), then take a look at yourself and your circumstances and design a plan. Design a plan for survival and growth. Your plan requires a balancing act of defining, refining, adapting and shifting.
Define your core relationship within your office. Are you a "loner" or part of the "in-crowd?" If you feel isolated, is this because you are misemployed, mismanaged, or mistaken in your perceptions? If it is the latter, it is important to recognize that participation in something as simple as sharing a coffee break with someone can establish as well as strengthen a relationship that may enhance the flow of useful information. Force yourself to increase positive social interactions regardless of your tendency toward shyness.
Refine this process by monitoring your body language, appearance, and other personal habits that may annoy or antagonize others. Test your skills across department lines as well as accessible strata of management. Proceed with caution and care at this point. Remember this is a balancing act.
Adapt to situations and circumstances as they present. Handling an unusual situation with finesse and success is a great way to demonstrate how wonderful and brilliant you are. Of course it is your responsibility to remind the right people of this whenever opportunities arise. Sing your praises, but remember this is also balancing act.
Shift your strategy in order to achieve your goals whenever it becomes necessary. Schmoozing is definitely a balancing act, but if it is done well it gives you a sense of power when you realize that the power to influence your career has shifted to you. You experience a powershift. As Alvin Toffler, author of Powershift, phrased it, "a powershift does not merely transfer power. It transforms it."
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